Interview Jennifer de Gandt – En anglais
Who are you?
Born in London in 1936, I am now the Elder of the French Clean Community. After meeting David Grove through my NLP connections, I trained in his avant garde method of dealing with trauma through metaphor, joining also the work of Penny Tompkins and James Lawley known as “Symbolic Modelling”. In 2000, as an NLP Trainer , I introduced this work to my colleagues at the annual NLP Conference. From then on, I ran ongoing trainings with Penny, James and David in my training centre in Normandy.
I now specialize in my role as Therapist and Coach in Clean Processes.
My specificity
My specificity has been to bridge different cultures, introducing exciting methods from the Anglo-Saxon world of Psychology and Management Training not yet translated and used in France. In this role I was one of the founders of NLPNL introducing la PNL and I played the same bridging role from 2000, by introducing David and his Clean Language then Clean Space and Emergent Knowledge to a small group of French enthusiasts.
I enjoy finding new methods, first in language teaching then later in psychology and training. I meet new ideas in psychology, neuroscience, body work and spiritual paths test them out on myself and in groups then transmit them to others.
Bringing new ideas has been the key to my varied professional life from methods for teaching language during my careers in the British Council in Poland, Iraq and India then in Education in IBM France. To this I added experience of Body work through the Alexander technique then since 2001 the Feldenkrais method “Awareness through Movement”. My spiritual path has been through Buddhism and Zen retreats and now through Non-dual Satsangs.
And since the age of 21, I have had an ongoing relationship with Therapy, starting with a Jungian Analysis, moving into the Humanistic Movement in the 70’s to becoming an NLP Trainer in the 80’s and from there to Clean Processes.
The ideas I am currently including in my explorations with Clean are currently based on Don Siegel’s “Mindsight”, Bruce Ecker’s “Memory Reconsolidation” research and Keagan’s “Immunity to Change”
My mission as a Clean Therapist and Coach, is
to create the conditions that allow individuals to explore their deeper motivations and desires, so that the difficulties and joys of their lives can reveal to them their own inner guidance, that deep inner knowing that we can lose contact with so easily in our unexplored inner conflicts and limiting beliefs.Clean Language is what for you?
CL is a map of simple questions that address the Right Brain, the unconscious, the not-knowing spaces of our mind-body, where we can find new perspectives, new resources, new solutions to what our Left Brain is so sure it knows. CL questions are catalysts for creativity in any domain, therapy, coaching, education, art and sports – anywhere we need to go beyond our limiting beliefs, doubts, blockages to connect with that vital, living force in us that learns how to adapt in a changing world.
What brought you to Clean Language?
From NLP, where I was a Certified Trainer, a colleague told me to go to David Grove’s “Personal Retreat” in the Lake District in England. From my first meeting with David, I was struck by the strangeness of his questions and the quality of his voice , which put me fully in contact with myself, creating new spaces in my mind. After three days, I was fully on board this gentle but penetrating way of exploring my inner landscapes. I wanted more! So I joined the London groups of Penny and James, who had modeled David’s questions and were presenting them in a teachable form. This led to a long association with them and their “Symbolic Modeling”, the fruit of their contact with David, including introducing them to the French NLP community at our Annual Conference in the year 2000. After that they paid regular visits to us in my Training Centre in Normandy. And from 2003 – 2007 David began his regular visits to us so we became an experimental Group for his latest ideas in Clean Space and Emergent Knowledge.
Where and how do you use Clean?
In Paris in the 15th arrondissement, as a Therapist and Coach with individual sessions and regular Clean Practice Groups, one Thursday a month and as a participant in the “Master in Coaching” programme run by Paris d’Assas.
In Normandy where I run Clean Cycles in a residential setting. There are 6 Modules of two days each a Friday and Saturday starting in September, October and November and continuing February, March and April. In the last week in June I run a full Summer School . First two days with Lynne Burney to offer in situ feedback to new Facilitators in Clean. Followed by further three days of Clean Teaching events.
Other regular events are a March “Salon du Printemps” to introduce a Clean Theme and a November meeting in “Emergent Knowledge”.
In all my Teaching of Clean I concentrate on giving participants, whether coaches, therapists, parents or just anyone, the chance to experience their own inner landscapes using Clean language and Clean Space. Learning to trust your own experienc is the first essential step towards becoming a Facilitator who helps others!
What are your successes?
I have created and maintained a strong Learning Community in France. The 15 people of the original Core Group have had from 5 – 10 years together experimenting and learning together. This gives us a safe support group to encourage our experiments in different fields, as you can see from the descriptions of the members in this annuaire. We continue to meet for our annual events sharing our latest work with each other.
We have created together a system of Certification and are now a registered Association for the promotion of Clean in France. All the new Trainers who emerged from the original Core Group invited me to evaluate with them on their final Module. This allowed me to see what was happening in the whole field we were creating. I am very grateful for their trust!
Bogena Pieskiewich went back to her native Poland to start spreading the news about Clean just after David’s death and I was invited to join her for her first evaluation in Warsaw, a very significant and moving time for us all. We are now in contact with her Polish group and are having exchanges with her and her new team.
We have also stayed in contact with our UK, Dutch and USA Clean colleagues and I have introduced Clean to the main NLP Institute in Montreal, Canada for several years, a start which is shortly to be continued independently by one of our members.
So this Learning Community is really a safe and creative place that supports us on this path of understanding and using David Grove’s Clean language, Clean Space and Emergent Knowledge. And thank you to everyone for continuing to grow together.